Archives

When the Insiders Lose Control

Events in January caught the world’s experts in diplomacy and foreign policy completely flat-footed. They did not forecast the fall of the Tunisian dictator of 23 years. They did not forecast the riots in Egypt.

Tunisia’s revolution began on December 17, when a Tunisian set fire to himself as a political protest. He died on January 4. That toppled the first domino. The dominoes are still falling.

This was made possible by the new technologies of telecommunications. Facebook and Twitter were part of this. I have explained this in detail here.

Also involved was the Middle East’s satellite TV network, Al Jazeera. The images of thousands of people taking to the streets informed others that the time was at long last ripe for public protests. The size of the crowds lured thousands more protesters into the streets.

The speed with which this took place indicates that the Middle East has entered a new political era. The authorities were unable to respond fast enough to this new digital technology. Messages went out so fast, and multiplied through the social networks so fast, that the politicians could not respond fast enough. The genie was out of the bottle.